


Some Hobbies Are Flammable

by gaymingtrash



Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: Caed Nua, Canon Universe, Deadfire, Friendship, Gen, Pillars Prompts Weekly, Some Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-17
Updated: 2018-11-17
Packaged: 2019-08-24 17:10:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16644329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaymingtrash/pseuds/gaymingtrash
Summary: The Watcher's companions leave her behind as Lady of Caed Nua and Kind Wayfarer, and two years later she now doesmagic spells. What's up with that?Because keeping a keep kept isn't hobby enough, apparently.





	Some Hobbies Are Flammable

**Author's Note:**

> A Pillars Prompts Weekly prompt, #54! About multiclassing, and how that happened between POE and Deadfire. 
> 
> Set at the very beginning of Deadfire, so not really spoilers for anything in particular.

“I just thought, how hard could it be?”

  


* * *

  


For the record, that had been a stupid question. Mercy had taken to the library in Caed Nua, half expecting to see Aloth perusing the tomes, as he so frequently had, but he was who-knows-where, now. It was just her and the steward and travelling petitioners who stayed in the keep, and even the ones who tried to rob her didn’t tend to linger here. She picked a shelf at random, and chose the least dusty book, deciding that made it a recommendation of sorts from whoever last wiped the cobwebs off its spine.

Cracking open the spine, she was immediately knocked off her feet by a gust of wind that emerged from its inner pages.

  


* * *

  


“So you’re a wizard now? Just like that?” Edér rose from his position behind his shield and wiped sweat off his forehead. The back of his hand came back covered in soot, and he frowned at it, before returning his gaze to Mercy.

“No! At least, not really.” She looked back at the elf a good few feet behind them, with his sceptre and robes, and then down at her own plate armour and recently sheathed sword. Also covered in soot. “Aloth is a _wizard_. I’m a Kind Wayfarer. With… a hobby.”

  


* * *

  


“Oh now, that won’t do at all.” She propped herself up on her elbows, and looked at where the book lay inert on the floor. She gave it a stern look, and when nothing happened, she slapped one hand on top if it as if it were a spider she were trapping under a glass. When nothing continued to happen, she scooped it into her arms, scrambled to her feet, and went to speak with the Steward.

The Steward of Caed Nua’s face was somehow both kind and impassive, as ever. Mercy had adjusted quickly to thinking of the Steward as a person and not a statue, but she still sometimes looked past her when she entered the main hall of the keep. Perhaps she’d adjusted so much that she expected the Steward not to be a statue at all, but someone who could adventure with her. It would certainly be less lonely.

“My Lady, how may I be of assistance?” The Steward’s voice came from the keep itself.

“Maerwald was a wizard, wasn‘t he? Before he was a Watcher, I mean.”

“I do not know which came first, but he was a wizard and Watcher both while he was the master of Caed Nua. I could feel the spells he used… and others.” An unasked question hung in the air.

  


* * *

  


“A hobby?” Aloth’s tone was incredulous but good-natured. "It took me years to master the fireball spell you just obliterated those imps with.”

Mercy sputtered indignantly. “I only _obliterated_ them because there were barrels of gunpowder nearby! That doesn’t happen with swords!” 

Aloth smiled, and hid it behind a cough. Edér did not attempt to suppress his laughter at all, and soon Mercy had also dissolved into a fit of giggles. Every time it seemed like she could stop laughing, she looked at Edér’s face, and fell to pieces all over again.

  


* * *

  


“I didn’t cast any spells. Not on purpose, anyway.” She held the book up to show the Steward. “I opened this, and it knocked me over.”

“A defensive ward? Curious, that it did not fail when Maerwald passed.”

Mercy frowned. “I’m sure Aloth could read everything in the library without it booting him to the ground.”

“Yes,” the Steward agreed, “but your friend Aloth was a wizard.”

Mercy set her jaw for a moment, thinking hard, and then looked at the Steward with a spark of excitement in her chest. “If you’re connected to Caed Nua, and its masters, past and present - could you teach me to be a wizard?”

The Steward was silent for a moment, before her answer came from the stones all around.

“I could certainly try.”

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me and my Watchers on tumblr at [gaymingtrash](http://gaymingtrash.tumblr.com) on tumblr!


End file.
